There are many times when we tell ourselves, “if I could only get away for just a little while…” It’s that old idea of escape, of wanting to just break free of all the things that here in the moment, the responsibilities and the pressures of the world coming to build up into a persistent knocking at the door. But when we have a way to relax in the midst of trouble, looking a storm in the face with calm, or even facing a moment without panicking, then we can see that there are always more options than we ever imagined. Hot tubs and spas are a fantastic way to make the options visible.
There’s something extraordinarily healing about hot water. Civilizations from all over the world have understood this for centuries, and there’s no one reason why this is true. It might be the relationship to the waters in the womb, or it might be the ocean, or it might be a number of things we may never fully understand. But it does open a direct connection to the reflexes for relaxation , in a metaphorical way that has immediate physical results.
This can be a splendid tool, because it means that there is an escape always at our disposal. Our desire to get away from it all is usually something that can be satisfied in just a few moments, of having that feeling that we’ve broken free from everything that’s become a burden. It can become an important practice, to take the moments every day to get the sense that everything is going to be all right. It is true, after all, and sometimes we can get so overwhelmed we can’t see the options any more. At these moments, when we’ve gotten some kind of clarity on things, we even start to see that the persistent knocking was never a call to panic, but it was our inner selves, calling on ourselves to get relaxed, and get away from the stress, to see that things are much brighter that they seem.